


Time of the Season

by skitty (sk_tty)



Category: Archie Comics, Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/M, Florist! Betty, Fluff and Angst, Forbidden Love, Slow Burn, Strangers to Lovers, Tattoo artist! Jughead, bughead - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2018-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-13 13:02:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11185665
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sk_tty/pseuds/skitty
Summary: Betty Cooper is miserable and working her summer away.  She resents her mother for making her get a stupid job. That is until a handsome stranger comes in and Betty realizes that maybe this florist gig isn't so bad after all.AU as this is set in 1968.





	1. one

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, y'all. This is my first ever fic. I know! Pleeeeease be gentle.  
> I dreamed this up around 3am and here I am posting it at 5. Excuse any errors. 
> 
> The song referenced is, obviously, Time of the Season by The Zombies. You should maybe listen to it while reading. C:

_It’s the time of the season_

_When love runs high_

_In this time, give it to me easy_

_And let me try_

_With pleasured hands_

 

Elizabeth “Betty” Cooper’s wistful sigh stirs the heavy air in the florist shop where she works; the radio is playing just loud enough that she gets lost in the music.  Nineteen years old and rather than spending her summer with her friends, or doing literally anything else, Betty is expected to stay in and work all day because her parents “didn’t raise her to waste her life doing nothing”. As if she was making the most of it shuffling pots of dirt around and helping people find the bouquet that says “I don’t know what your favorite flower is but, hell, I’m not going to show up empty-handed so the florist picked these”.

 

Her older sister Polly ~~was “smart” and~~ married quickly after high school, leaving Riverdale (and Betty) behind. She has a couple of beautiful kids and lives a wonderful life: every one of her letters says as much. Their mother, Alice Cooper, loves to bring this up with Betty, especially when their neighbor and Betty’s longtime-friend Archie Andrews is around.

 

_“Polly used to have Jason over for dinner all the time... Don't you have anyone you want to bring home? Oh, why don’t we have Archie over for dinner sometime, Elizabeth? And your parents, Archie! We’ve been neighbors for years, and I’d love to catch up with your mother...”_

 

This thoroughly embarrasses the both of them everytime Alice tries it, each of their faces growing hot. Betty had feelings for Archie in the ancient past, sure, but anyone who knows them knows that he’s been with her best friend, Veronica Lodge, forever! Betty is happy for them, really! Thrilled, even. They’re mad for each other. At least Kevin Keller, the fourth in their quad, is still single. Though lately Betty is starting to think he’s hiding something, or someone, in his life.

 

The dinging of the bell over the door brings Betty back from where her mind had wandered off. The customer that enters is a man only a few years her senior though she doesn’t recognize him as from Riverdale. He is dressed in an outfit almost inappropriately dark given the weather, Betty notes. His jean jacket is worn as are his jeans. A pack of cigarettes hangs precariously out of his shirt pocket and his hands are dirty, dyed slightly blue from some kind of ink, if she were to guess. His hair is unruly, curling out every which way from under his hat, dark against the light gray points of his cap.

It looks like a crown, almost.

If one were to squint.

She also can’t ignore how strikingly handsome he is regardless of how out of place he looks in her tidy, little shop. Or in her neighborhood. In her town. Her eyes follow him as he sidesteps around the cat, Caramel, that lives in the shop and loves to lay in the sun coming in through the front window.

 

_What’s your name?_

_Who’s your daddy?_

_He rich?_

_Is he rich like me?_

 

He hums to the tune on her little radio. She absentmindedly pulls her bottom lip between her teeth and chews on it, a nervous habit she picked up as a child. His fingers trail lightly across the tops of flowers in the display to the right of the register and she curls her own into her palms to distract herself from the bundle of nerves forming in her stomach. She speaks, softly, as if she were interrupting something: “Can I help you with something, sir?”

 

He turns and regards her for the first time since entering the shop. His eyes narrow slightly and creases form in the corners. He smiles at her though, a brilliant smile. 

  
“Yeah, I suppose you can. What’s your name, sweetheart?”


	2. two

Betty can feel the heat in her cheeks and all she can think about is how pink she must look right now. “My name? My name is Elizabeth Cooper. Well, personally I like to go by Betty, but that’s neither here nor there I guess...” She paused for a moment to clear her throat as it had gone dry. “You can call me Betty,” she finishes, a little more confidently. She wrings in her hands the potting gloves her mother bought her when she first got this job. Surely she’s turning red now. 

 

Though he  probably knows she is embarrassed, the stranger doesn’t acknowledge it. She secretly blesses him for this. Betty can’t last another second however before she curses him as well; his smile is so disarming. She wishes she could look away. Somewhat unsuccessfully, she focuses on the The Moody Blues song now playing in the background. That’s proving hard to do with the way his eyes are trained on her face, brows furrowed while he watches her carefully. 

 

The man comes to rest his knuckles against the edge of the counter, leaning in close enough that she could see the spattering of freckles across his nose and cheeks.  “Pleased to meet you, Betty.” He extends a hand and she takes it after a beat, feeling how rough and big his hand is against her own. She has no way of knowing this but, for a moment, he has a hard time keeping his breathing from giving away the fact he feels a sudden nervousness, too. 

 

“My name’s Forsythe Pendleton Jones...the third. I’d prefer it if you call me Jughead though, as the alternative is a goddamn mouthful. Pardon my language. I work at a tattoo shop on the Southside- Serpent Tattoo?” He offers, wondering if she has heard of it. The look on her face says that she hasn’t.  He isn’t offended; nice girls like Betty Cooper have no business near a place like that. “This is the closest flower shop by a few miles and I figure my roses need a little work. Would you mind if I come by sometime and practice drawing them for a while? Or would your boss mind? A young thing like you, I can’t imagine this joint is yours. No offense.”

 

She lets out a nervous giggle but smiles politely, her hands smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles in her perfectly pressed apron. It takes everything she has to not anxiously press her fingernails into her palms. “I have no issue with it, and the company would be nice. I don’t get a lot of people walking in here, owner included.” 

 

Jughead smiles once more and adjusts the hat on his head before reaching down to give Caramel a pat as the cat has rubbed up against him. “Good. I’ve got to head out now. Just figured I’d come over here and ask before I start my day. I’ll be seeing you soon, Betty.”

 

“Jughead.” 

 

He slips out the door and gets on a motorcycle she hadn’t before noticed whilst daydreaming. It roars to life underneath him and for a moment she wonders what it would feel like to sit on that bike, pressed against him. After she is sure he cleared the street corner, she resumes her relaxed lean against the counter. Her mind wanders for the second time that morning, but it isn’t her pal Archie she thinks about. 

 

* * *

 

Betty and Veronica are doing what they always do on Friday nights: splitting a huge plate of fries at their local haunt, Pop’s Chock’lit Shoppe. Usually Kevin and Archie are there too but Veronica called for a girl’s night. She pulled a funny face when she explained as much to Betty. “There’s been too much testosterone in my life lately.”

 

Betty and Veronica order their usual shakes, Chocolate and Strawberry, respectively. “Wait, wait... so this guy’s name is  _ Jughead _ ?” Veronica scoffs. Betty’s face falls for a second but she readjusts in the booth and puts on one of her mega-watt smiles. “Jones. The third. And he is...” She trails off for a moment, her eyes gone wide. “...walking into Pop’s.”

 

Veronica all but breaks her neck when she whips around to face the door. “No shit! The hot one, right?”

 

Jughead is flanked by two other guys. It is not to say that the other men are ugly; they’re ruggedly handsome in their own right. But when compared to Jughead.. with his dangerously sharp smile and light eyes, it is hard for anyone to compare. They’re all three looking around after perching on some stools at the counter when he looks over Betty’s way. Jughead tilts his head back and says something to his friends, shifting off of his perch with one foot. 

 

Pop never minds nor cares who comes into his shoppe. Jughead sticks out, sure. He attracts attention. But he also eats up a storm and pays accordingly. That makes him alright in Pop’s book. It is interesting to Pop that the boy’s here so early however. Jughead is more of a late-night patron. He sees the boy approaching the youngest Cooper girl and suddenly has an idea as to why Jughead has graced the dinner crowd with an appearance. 

 

“Betty, he’s coming this way!” Veronica grins, slapping the seat next to her. Betty wished she could disappear; everyone has their eyes trained on her as he saunters down the row of booths to where she’s sitting. The women and girls look intrigued, their husbands and boyfriends less so. Veronica would have been just as jealous as every other girl in the place if she wasn’t already smitten with Archie. Not to say she isn’t still a  _ little _ jealous.

 

“Imagine my luck seeing you here, Betty Cooper.” 

 

He’s cleaned up since their meeting in the flower shop that morning. His hair is still wild under his hat but it frames his face nicely. He traded his old denim jacket for a nicer, leather one. A serpent is emblazoned across the back surrounded by the words “Southside Serpents”. He shrugs his jacket off and drapes it off the back of the booth. A low hiss pierces Betty’s ears; it’s Veronica. Betty isn’t even sure the girl knows she made the noise. Betty thinks back to Veronica’s testosterone crack. 

 

“Oh my  _ god _ ,” the dark-haired girl mouths. “Look at all of his  _ tattoos _ !” Betty ignores her friend. Veronica recovers quickly and scoots over in the booth. She prompts him to sit before Betty can say anything. She speaks, her voice high and uncharacteristically saccharine. 

 

“Betty was just telling me all about the fine-as-wine stranger that came into her store today. I take it that’s you?”

 

Jughead cocks an eyebrow in Betty’s direction where she is currently trying to become one with the booth. Her efforts are for naught, unfortunately. He cracks a smile. 

 

“Fuckin’ A.”


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay. Imma be honest. I don't have a good reason as to why I abandoned this fic for so long... please take this chapter though and find it in your heart to forgive me. <3
> 
> thx to my pal @theherbertsherbert for beta-ing

Veronica leans forward and takes a sip of her milkshake, making a show of wiping her thumb across her mouth afterward. Her eyes scan his face and she smirks and extends a hand, which he takes, both briefly and cautiously. "The name's Veronica Lodge. Remember that as I'm a primary character in our dear Betty's story." Jughead's lip curls at this but he is interrupted before he can reply. "No need to formally introduce yourself, Jughead Jones. Your rep precedes you. But I get it now, when she was talking about you being something to see-" Veronica's eyes flit across to the table to where her friend was internally dying from embarrassment. Veronica carries on, "-but are you all show and no go?"

" _Veronica_. I’m so sorry, Jughead, she can be-"

With a weird look in her eye, Veronica ignores Betty: “So, Jug-head, I’m going to ask you some incredibly personal questions and you’re going to answer them to my liking.” The man nods, feigning seriousness, but an amused smile makes its way onto his face despite this. He doesn’t look at Betty but he can feel her eyes on him. He wishes they could be alone but he wants to see where this is going.

“What’s your family like? Do you have a cute brother? - doesn’t matter if he’s available, I’m flexible.” 

“Well my father is... he’s in and out of my life. Has been since I was young, so I can’t speak much on him. Dunno where he is now and no one cares to go lookin’. This was his jacket from when he were younger. So I guess you could call me a sap for wearing it. I don’t suggest that though.”  
Jughead winks at Betty just to watch the fading flush creep back across her face. “No cute brother - kid sister though. Jellybean. She lives with our mother but I’m only on speaking terms with JB. She’s the only family I’ve got.”

Veronica nods and reaches across to tap Betty to show her growing approval. “Do you tattoo yourself or did someone else draw that crude looking hamburger on your arm?”

He looked down with a small smile, turning his arm towards the girls so they could fully see the tattoo in question. “None of these are my handiwork; they’re much too nice. My pal Moose did this one because she was my first love, the hamburger.”

“Where does the name Jughead come from and who told you it was a good idea?”

“It came to me in a dream. - Just kidding. Would you believe me if I said it was a family name?”

Betty chuckled through sips of milkshake though Veronica rolled her eyes. “See if you can handle this one: when’s the last time you made it? Follow-up question, what are your intentions with Betty? Do they involve messing around? Because between you and me, she could stand to be underneath someone like you.”

“We all could.” Cheryl Blossom said sighing, chiming in from the next booth. 

Veronica gestures to Cheryl and back as if her point was proven. “Your response, please.”

Even Jughead clears his throat and blushes on this one. “Out of respect for all aforementioned parties, I plead the fifth.” This time it was him shooting Betty an apologetic look.

“Betty? Anything you care to add?” Veronica goads. 

Betty, having decidedly had just about enough of this, replies with a curt: “Yes; just how gassed are you?” 

 

* * *

After somehow convincing Veronica to go over and introduce herself to Sweet Pea and Fangs, Jughead repositions himself to be directly across from Betty. "Had I known I'd be getting the third degree... I think I would have waited to come over here." Betty looks down at her lap and bites her lip. Suddenly the hem of her skirt is so _interesting_. Jug reaches across the table and grabs her hand that is resting there. "As long as your friend Miss Lodge isn't there, I'd still love to spend some time at the shop with you... If that's something you'd like." Betty looks up into those blue eyes for the second time that day and can't help but count her blessings.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for sticking it out with me! Please leave a comment if you care to.


End file.
